Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1887-01-07
EGYPTIAN CITIES.
The Local History of Hundreds of Once
Prosperous Towns Along the Nile.


The Local History of Hundreds of Ono
Prosperous Towns Along the Nile.
Upon some spot Of rising grount
above the level OF the annual inunda
ton few mud huts cluster round I
rude sanctuary. The hut-dwellers mul
tiply; the village spreads: the sanctuary
Is enlarged or rebuilt. As time goei
on the village becomes town; the
town becomes city; and the temple,
enriched by successive generations Of
Kings, Governors and pious donors be-
comes vast historical aggregate Of
chapels, halls, courts, avenues, pylons
and sacred enclosures. BY and by,
whether ravaged by foreign foes or
shattered by some oonvulsion of nature,
the splendid structure falls into partial
ruin. Hereupon the degenerate princes
of a later age, careless of the past and
eager to raise some memorial of their
own uneventful rule, lay profane hands
upon the monuments Of their great
predecessors, cut them up for building
material and use them in the con-
struction OF debased limitations of
earlier schools. This process, in all
probability, is again and again re-
peated. Not merely stones, but statues,
sphinxes. obelisks, are appropriated
and reappropriated, worked and re-
worked. till at last there comes time
OF disruption and change, when the
old religion is abolished, and the i'm
ages OF the gods are cast down, and the
very language Of the inscriptions is for
gotten. After this, the sacred places
become quarries for the builders of
Coptic churches. Arab mosques and the
palaces OF Turkish Governors. Mean
while the actual city, consisting Of
lanes OF mud-built dwell
ings, gradually disappears. Tbs spa
cious houses OF the rich, the novels of
the poor, crum5le. collapse and resolve
themselves into mounds of dust and
potsherds. Such is the local history OF
Of ancient Egyptian sites,
and such is the history OF Tanis.
A hundred years ago, the grave of
this dead city was yet inviolate. Then.
as now, the great sand island was
heaped high with desolate piles of red
rubbish Then, as now,
those mounds enclosed low, level
area of large extent ] Ike the bed of Il
dry lake. or the crater Of an extinct
The traveller who--oncc, per-
chance. in deca le-scaled those crum-
bling slopes and looked down into that
urea, beheld ut his an undulating
waste enclosed by lat at first sight
ooked like a quadrs Eular rampant OF
bat whicit proved, on closer
Inspection. to be the remains of an ex-
-raordinary massive wall built of sun
Tried bricks. The space thus bounded
vas strewn with ruins.
Such was the aspect of the place
when surveyed in 1898 by the engineers
If the great French expe lition. Mean
While there was war in Egypt, in India.
n Europe, on land. on sea-universal |
var, followed, in 1915, by universal
'eace. The rich, the learned, tAa
dventurous, the speculative, were
nee more free to travel, and the world !
vas speedily oyerrun by tourists and |
raiders. The picture market and the |
market. both long dormant,
tarted into new and vigorous life. In
Egypt the soil was strewn with treas
Tres which it was not only profitable
'ut praiseworhy to rescue from the
destructive propensities Of native fell
aheen and Turkish Pashas. A host Of
epredators laid hands accordingly
Ipon every movable object within
heir reach, and the collections so +
were sold for enormous sums
0 crowned heads and wealthy viriuosi.
'hus were founded the great Egyptian
alleries of our European museums. =
inielid b. Edwards, IN Harper's Mag
zine.